Stony Brook and Albany Officially Accept CAA Football Invitations
Yes, Stony Brook is on Long Island.
After months of speculations, the CAA finally officially announced that Stony Brook and Albany will be joining the conference as football only members beginning in 2013. A teleconference is scheduled for Wednesday morning at 10:30. Both schools are currently members of the America East Conference, which doesn’t sponsor football. Albany plays football in the North East Conference and Stony Brook plays in the Big South. Both schools won their respective league titles last year and actually faced each other in the first round of the FCS playoffs. Stony Brook won the match-up 31-28 before bowing out to championship runner-up Sam Houston State in the second round.
Glass Half Full
The CAA is losing 3 football teams after this season in ODU, Georgia State, and Rhode Island (a program that the league might yet convince to stick around). Albany and Stony Brook are clear upgrades over the latter two. Stony Brook has won 3 straight Big South conference titles and is favored to repeat this year. The Seawolves also had the highest scoring offense in FCS last year. Albany has won 2 NEC conference titles in the past 4 years. They had a rather prolific offense as well, averaging 33 points a game. Sure, they weren’t facing CAA caliber defenses week in and week out, but these are winning FCS programs with the commitment to get even better.
In addition to improving the overall strength of the league, these additions will give the CAA 10 teams for the 2013 season. That’s makes for an easy 8 game conference schedule. And since both schools are in the Northeast, it makes travel easier for Maine and New Hampshire. The CAA will no longer be a strictly southern based league. That’s good if for no other reason than it might keep New Hampshire’s eyes from wandering.
Glass Half Full
I told my wife about the news and she immediately asked me 1.) if Stony Brook was in Vermont and 2.) if they made that yogurt. Household names these schools are not. And those positives I mentioned about the schools being from the Northeast? Yeah, there are some negatives to balance them out. First of all, Stony Brook is on Long Island and Albany is in, well, Albany. Those aren’t exactly college football hotbeds. Both schools has a solid product on the field last year, but it didn’t really resonate at the box office. Stony Brook was 83rd in FCS attendance with an average of 5,573 fans a game. Albany was even worse with only 3,928 fans a game. And things might change, but at first glance neither school will be as fun to hate as ODU. It’s going to tough to make up for the loss of an in-state rival with the addition of two schools from New York.
And yes, Stony Brook has won 3 straight Big South titles. They actually shared the title in 2009 and 2010 though. And the Big South wasn’t even strong enough to garner a single playoff bid in either year. And the Seawolves went 1-4 out of conference both season. But, I assume they got a banner or something.
I’m not thrilled about this. I appreciate that both teams have competent football products, but I don’t see this as the big splash that I was hoping for. I’ve heard people say that having Stony Brook and Albany will help the national prominence of JMU and the CAA, any ideas how this may be?
SB is good at baseball, so that’s good at least. However, I’m still hoping that the CAA will look South for 2 more teams to get to 12, and I’m still hoping for Davidson and/or Appy St. however unlikely that may seem.
SB is very good in baseball. Unfortunately, they’re going to be football only members.
I’m not super thrilled about this move either, because I was hoping for schools that would make a big splash. Objectively speaking though, I think any school other than an App State, Montana, etc would fail to deliver such a big splash. The CAA is the best FCS league in the country, so by definition the additions were bound to come from lesser leagues. I guess I was just hoping that somehow the CAA would poach the best teams from another top FCS league.
It may not be a big splash, but it will keep New Hampshire and Maine happy which is important and they are two quality football teams…..far better than what we would lose in GaState and Rhode Island. I suspect we will get 2 more teams but I doubt it will include App State (which would be a HUGE WIN) but suspect it will be 2 southern schools for full membership to help boost basketball (Davidson/College of Charleston/Coastal Carolina). I would target Davidson and Coastal Carolina.
A friend says the CAA is grooming JMU’s eventual replacements, for when it finally does go FBS. If that’s true, then picking Albany, which has purple and gold colors and a canine mascot, makes perfect sense.
Do they make that yogurt or not though?
Whatever. Chalk up 2 more pre-season wins for the Dukes. This is kind of nice b/c now we only have to win like 2 real games to break .500
So… let’s talk about our CAA exit strategy now….
Can’t wait to kick your arrogant ass on your own turf in 2013.
-Seawolves fan!
PS. Good luck with moving to 1A!